Posted on 06/20/2007 9:50:34 AM PDT by Dubya
Getting a green card, a notoriously difficult and bureaucratic task, just got easier for thousands of immigrants.
For the first time in years, the federal government is accepting green card applications on behalf of legal workers from India, mainland China, the Philippines and other countries that have had torturously long waits.
Starting July 1, the vast majority of legal immigrants who have Department of Labor certification will be eligible for green cards with their employer's sponsorship.
The news, announced in the State Department's July visa bulletin, clears the way for a wave of applications from high-tech and skilled workers living in the United States and abroad.
Immigration attorneys cautioned that this does not automatically mean the workers will get green cards. But immigrants who have been waiting for their coveted cards for years say they are thrilled.
Reshma Soni said she was looking at a five- or six-year wait before the State Department could accept her green card application.
That is, until the latest visa bulletin came out.
''I almost ran out of the office, I was so happy," said Soni, a 33-year-old Houston legal assistant from South Africa. ''I had been waiting six years already, and I had anticipated waiting another six years. It was the best news I could ask for."
U.S. government officials had no explanation on Tuesday for the sudden movement in categories that had showed relatively slow progress for years. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service officials in Dallas and Washington, D.C., referred comment to the State Department. Janelle Hironimus, a State Department spokeswoman, referred comment to USCIS officials.
Neither agency could say how many immigrants are waiting in line for employment-based green cards.
Each year, the federal government allocates 140,000 green cards in employment-based categories, giving preference based on immigrants' skill set and education and the date their paperwork was filed.
The system also puts a cap on the number of workers from any particular country at about 7 percent, leading to long waits for people from countries whose skilled and educated workers are in high demand.
Waiting not an issue
For example, until the most recent visa bulletin was released, a worker from India who immigrated on an employment visa in 2005 could have anticipated waiting for years to even file for an adjustment of status to get a green card.
This June, the State Department reported significant headway, issuing green cards for employers who filed in June 2003 on behalf of workers from India, China and Mexico.
With the most recent bulletin, the wait is no longer an issue for most skilled workers. For applicants who decide to return home, green cards would be available immediately. For those who have been waiting to apply for their green cards in the U.S., they will be able to file to adjust their status on July 1.
The news led to a flurry of postings on Internet immigration forums. One blogger wrote that the ''July 2007 visa bulletin brings tears to the eyes of all those people who are in queue to get their green cards."
Soni, meanwhile, spread the news around her office, the immigration law firm of Quan, Burdette & Perez. Attorney Gordon Quan, Soni's employer, said his office started fielding calls as the visa bulletin started circulating more widely.
''We had clients calling and saying, 'Yes! I can file now. Please, get my papers ready!' " Quan said.
Robert P. Deasy, with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the number of people who have been waiting to file for green cards is larger than the 140,000 annual pool of available green cards in employment-based categories. Even if they don't get green cards right away, Deasy said, ''it advances them in the queue. And that's a huge benefit."
The bulk of immigration to the U.S. is based on family ties, although some members of Congress are lobbying to put more emphasis on workers' skills and education. Some employers argue that the current system makes it difficult for them to compete globally for top workers and retain those who immigrate, only to face long waits for green cards.
'Huge backlog'
Umesh Verma, chief executive officer of Houston-based Blue Lance, a computer security software company, said his business employs 75 workers, but it could increase employment by another 30 percent if he could find qualified programmers, field engineers and support staff. It takes between a year and 18 months to fill positions at Blue Lance, he said.
''We have this huge backlog for getting highly skilled, degreed workers," he said. ''It's not a matter of displacing local workers. The local workers don't exist. The only way for us to get the job done is to get these highly skilled workers from overseas."
Chronicle reporter Jenalia Moreno contributed to this story.
susan.carroll@chron.com
The feds are opening the sluice gates. Doubtless a slap at the immigration bill opponents. Support our bill or we will not only not enforce the law, we will also lower all bars and barriers to legal immigration such that no effective distinction exists between legal and illegal. They will all be legal.
Wh-a-a-a?
What? India, China and Mexico have more highly skilled programers and tech support than the U.S. does?
I mind. We don’t need more Chinese spies in this country stealing our technology.
More smelly crap from our government...
My family and I have been waiting for 5 years. These people will still be at the mercy of a ridiculously inefficient system. They have only been given the right to apply for a Greencard, not get one. They will simply join the end of the long queue that your fiance and we are already in.
Don’t give up! It took us 5 years to get our green cards, then 7 more for citizenship. It takes forever, but it’s worth it. (We’re from Canada also).
From the article: “Getting a green card, a notoriously difficult and bureaucratic task, just got easier for thousands of immigrants”
From elc: “My British citizen fiance applied for his greencard in Jan of 03. Nearly 4.5 years - still waiting”
From ExpatCanuck: “My family and I have been waiting for 5 years”
The Senate’s Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill will make it much more grueling for people like you who go through the legal process to ever get your greencard:
1. By law, anyone with an application since May 2005 (I wonder how many millions that is?) would have to start over.
2. While immigration & naturalization services are overwhelmed trying to execute 12-million background checks in 24 hours, the current backlog of 4-million legal applications and 350-thousand FBI background checks on legal applicants will only grow to unmanageable proportions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061601360.html?hpid%3Dtopnews⊂=AR
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20060306-123558-4971r.htm
http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d0620high.pdf
I’m glad I became a citizen before our officials decided that punishing the law-abiding & rewarding scoff-laws was such a good idea.
Amen.
Our Slovak dance instructor is waiting for his. He was here on a Visa and applied. We can’t even get the Visa renewed.
We expect to lose him about the time the amnesty bill passes.
I’m glad I came here in 1971...
This is so criminal...and so unfair...
The illegal aliens are going to get AMNESTY and have more rights with a Z-Visa than a Green Card holder...
and be in the front of the line and never have to leave here...
We are busy on the phones here every day to our senators..I fight on behalf of the REAL immigrants waiting to come here legally..
I believe that respect for our laws equals a future good American citizen...
the distain in which the illegal aliens hold our laws and our flag makes me sick...and spittin’ mad...and they are unfit to enter our country..as they are already here...deportation is in order...
Isn’t it amazing that just in the course of a couple of hours 6 LEGAL immigrant-family people met on this thread, and yet all we hear in the news & the papers is that people who are against this bill are anti-immigrant xenophobes?
He must have really screwed up his paperwork then. My wife's visa app, temp greencard app were filled out by me and processed within 6 months of dropping my applications to them.
We expect to lose him about the time the amnesty bill passes.
Let him apply under the Z visa .... hell if he overstays he will qualify.
ROFLMBO
The reporter, in this case, also seemed to be surprised at this odd behavior as well.
“1. By law, anyone with an application since May 2005 (I wonder how many millions that is?) would have to start over.”
ONE OF MANY OUTRAGES IN THIS SENATE IMMIGRATION BILL IS HOW IT PUTS LEGAL IMMIGRANTS BEHIND ILLEGAL ALIENS!
The Z visa legalization/amnesty is a slap in the face to legal immigrants, taxpayers, and anyone who cares about the rule of law.
Kill Bill II: The Vampire Strikes Back ( Warroom thread - Fight the Senate Immigration Bill - Just say NO to cloture!)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1851892/posts?page=87#87
He has a lawyer doing his paperwork for him. Could it be that because you were applying for a spousal greencard it went faster?
I joked at the beginning that we would be married before he got it, and it looks as 2 July, I will be correct.
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